Dragon Ball Super: Manga Chapter 98 - Official Discussion Thread

[VegettoEX]

Dragon Ball Super: Manga Chapter 98

ガンマ2号の覚悟
Ganma 2-gō no Kakugo
Gamma #2's Resolve

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Release Information:

JAPAN:
Date: October 20, 2023
Publication: V-Jump, December 2023 Issue
Cost: ¥640



(V-Jump is forward-dated two months from its actual release window. Issues are generally released on the 21st of each month, barring a Sunday or a holiday, in which case the issue gets moved up a day appropriately.)

INTERNATIONAL:
Date: October 19, 2023 (timed to the JP midnight-on-October-20th release)
Publication: Digital (Viz/Shonen Jump + Manga Plus)
Cost: Free

STORYBOARDS/DRAFTS:
The first several pages of any given chapter's roughs/storyboards/drafts have been posted on the official Dragon Ball website for quite some time now (in all likelihood done in an attempt to combat piracy and control the narrative by releasing teases of specific information and context at their own discretion). The drafts for Dragon Ball Super manga chapter 98 were posted on October 13 (Japan time). As these specific articles are generally removed from the website upon the chapter's formal release, archived versions of these links (such as this) are generally shared by fandom.



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THREAD/DISCUSSION INFORMATION

This is the "official" discussion thread for Dragon Ball Super manga chapter 98. All content regarding this specific chapter would be great to include here in this thread, rather than the dedicated / larger / all-encompassing ongoing thread. Posts that are specific to the individual chapter in the gigantic thread with no relevance to the larger series will be reported and/or removed.

Q: When will this thread open?

A: This thread will be opened by a Kanzenshuu moderator when the first official promotion of the respective chapter occurs. This may be when its storyboards are shared, or in some kind of formal news article leading up to that point. Please do not create a separate thread of your own to discuss this chapter.

Q: What is the history behind a [blank]-specific discussion thread?

A: We established episode-specific discussion threads beginning with Dragon Ball Kai in 2011, followed by the Dragon Ball Super television series in 2015. These episode-specific threads allowed people to discuss just that: those specific episodes, without being interrupted by other discussions regarding general production, promotion, etc. We didn't create corresponding Dragon Ball Super manga chapter threads at its debut due to the nature of its production: it was initially billed as a "comicalization" of the television series, and the first arc barely stood on its own as a unique production, rather than supplemental/incidental/disposable. We had kept the larger thread out of inertia from those earlier chapters, and have wavered for literal years over whether or not to separate them out.

Q: We've had worthwhile individual chapters since chapter five. This is absurd. Why are you just starting individual discussion threads so many years into the manga, when the TV series had it from the start?

A: All of that is correct. Maybe we will go back and pull out threads for past chapters. Maybe we won't. We should have done this a long time ago. Better late than never. This is the plan for now on and is not currently up for discussion or reconsideration. Thank you.

Q: OK, but... so what's the point?

A: At Kanzenshuu we believe in history and preservation. It is worthwhile to future versions of ourselves and entirely new future fans to be able to dig back and find real-time reactions to specific productions (such as a specific episode or chapter). It's much easier to do this when the discussions are separated into these unique threads.

Q: When will new threads be created?

A: Threads for new/upcoming manga chapters will be created by a Kanzenshuu administrator at an appropriate point in time following the release of a previous chapter, and ahead of that next chapter's release schedule (which itself includes the official drafts/storyboards).

Q: OK, so what do you expect us to actually discuss in a chapter thread, particularly ahead of its release?

A: For some time now, Shueisha (in all likelihood to combat "leaks" and illegal piracy) has released "draft" pages of upcoming chapters in the two weeks leading up to any given chapter's release. These are official pieces of information dissemination and absolutely up for discussion. We welcome questions about where and how to legally and officially consume the manga. We do not condone nor allow the discussion or encouragement of piracy. Following a chapter's release, of course anything relating to that chapter and its contents are up for discussion in a specific thread.

Q: What kinds of "sources" can we discuss?

A: You can discuss whatever you want, so long as it lives up to the community guidelines. It is recommended that you link to / discuss actual sources of information, rather than second-hand accounts. Twitter and its users are not "sources" of information. Shueisha has its own official Dragon Ball website and weekly news broadcast on YouTube, which will in all likelihood be your actual primary sources of information leading up to a chapter's release.

Q: What if I have something to say about another chapter that's not this chapter?

A: Is what you have to say/ask/post even tangentially related to this chapter? That's fine. Does it have absolutely nothing to do with this chapter? Post it elsewhere. These chapter-specific threads do not automatically close after a new chapter comes out; you are free to keep discussing a specific chapter for as long as you all feel like talking about it.

Q: So what do we do with the big/main thread?

A: The dedicated / larger / all-encompassing ongoing thread is still perfect for overall/holistic discussion regarding the manga, its production, its promotion, its content relation to other parts of the franchise, etc.

Q: I want to learn more about what's going on with this manga's production!

A: Check out Episode #0489 of our podcast for an extreme deep-dive (with all the receipts you can eat!) into the production of the manga, including all of the ways that Toyotaro, Akira Toriyama, and Victory Uchida each individually contribute to it.

[Magnificent Ponta]

Gotta say, Gotenks becoming part of a Volleyball play to expose Cell Max's weak point is a cute little adjustment.

[Bardock God of Time]

I think it's safe to say 3 more chapters.

Spoiler:

Next chapter will probably end with Gohan going beast, 2nd chapter will be Gohan beast vs Cell max, 3rd chapter will be the aftermath of the fight and the post-credit scene from the movie

Next arc will probably begin in February 2024 (but there could always be another Hiatus, who knows)

[kemuri07]

chriiiiist.

As it is, it's fine I guess. But yeah, three more months is still way too long for not enough story.

[GreatSaiyaman123]

The senzu stuff was so contrived, it’s ridiculous. Anything to fill up the pages.

I think it's safe to say 3 more chapters.

Spoiler:

Next chapter will probably end with Gohan going beast, 2nd chapter will be Gohan beast vs Cell max, 3rd chapter will be the aftermath of the fight and the post-credit scene from the movie

Next arc will probably begin in February 2024 (but there could always be another Hiatus, who knows)

With the new show I thought they’d go 100 chapters and wrap up Super, but this new chapter moved pretty quickly. I don’t see Gohan vs Cell lasting a full chapter, so I’d say 99 is fight + wrap up and 100 is the new saga.

[Koitsukai]

I'm kinda sick of this storyline by now. Cell Max, Orange Piccolo, the Gammas... a year and a half dealing with this in every shape and form, I just want this to end, I'm having Granola arc flashbacks. I'm like Granola shouting that he needs this to end for good.
I doubt Piccolo will take a beating for an entire chapter so Beast Gohan can be the cliffhanger... but who knows? that whole Pan flying thing ended up taking even more space, just because...

This retelling arc will end up being a few chapters short of the Zamasu arc. But hey, at least we'll be able read the entire story. The one that Toriyama and Toei don't seem to give two fucks about.

[ZombieVito]

Lol, Toyo didn't change Gohan's line about giant Piccolo so that's another error added to the list for the manga.

[nato25]

Lol, Toyo didn't change Gohan's line about giant Piccolo so that's another error added to the list for the manga.

Which line? And whoever said 3 months... God please no. Surely the next chapter is the end of this...

[MuscleRobo]

Lol, Toyo didn't change Gohan's line about giant Piccolo so that's another error added to the list for the manga.

Which line? And whoever said 3 months... God please no. Surely the next chapter is the end of this...

It has to at least be two chapters in my opinion. I think three might be pushing it but no way is it just one.

[ZombieVito]

Lol, Toyo didn't change Gohan's line about giant Piccolo so that's another error added to the list for the manga.

Which line? And whoever said 3 months... God please no. Surely the next chapter is the end of this...

Gohan doesn't know Piccolo can turn giant on this chapter yet he sees 73 do it when copying Piccolo and even comments that he knows that technique.

A clear error.

[nato25]

Isn't there like 3 minutes of the film left? It's been a while since I watched but from here, cell knocks piccolo out, gohan goes beast and fires his final attack. What's left to cover?

[Koitsukai]

Just like the Z anime would take up like 16 minutes to show you a guy charging up their attack, screaming, clouds of dust moving around, the peanut gallery saying repetitive stuff, etc, until they finally launch their attack, to adapt a brief, 4-panel situation from Toriyama's manga, I have a feeling, this time it'll be the other way around and a 2-minute scene from the movie will take more than just a few pages.

[Vegard Aune]

Yeah at this point the next chapter is clearly going to be the climax, folks. Will the arc end next month? Maybe not, it might end on the Cell Max exploding. But I don't see how Toyotaro could possibly make an entire 40 page chapter that's just Piccolo getting kicked around by Cell Max and then the chapter ends on Gohan transforming. Like, have we been reading the same arc? Because none of the chapters I've seen have had only one thing happening. Has the pace slowed massively? Well yeah, because we're at the part of the movie that's mostly fighting. If you want to have actually cool action in a comic format, then yeah duh that's gonna result in a lot of panels for comparatively little stuff. It works the other way, too; Go back and read some action-focused chapters of Toriyama's DB and ask yourself, is this really enough material for even ten minutes of animation? (And that's me being generous and assuming two chapters per episode when... simultaneous serialization made even that difficult to keep up for extended amounts of time.) No, and I think the proof is in the pudding on that with the Dragon Ball anime being infamously dragged out in its fights.

[FortuneSSJ]

Shueisha won't let my man Toyotaro end this arc before December. I was hoping this chapter would end with Gohan Beast debut.

Pan flying scene is better here. Instead of doing it to save herself, she risked it all to help her father and we got a good interaction between both. Good job.

There are some cool pages:

Spoiler:

[Vegard Aune]

Personally I was not very fond of the Piccolo growing huge page. Because like... it's flipped a full 90 degrees requiring one to flip the book to see it "upright". Kinda feels a bit... "Toyotaro wanted to do a two-page spread but he was limited by page restrictions" to me.

Shueisha won't let my man Toyotaro end this arc before December. I was hoping this chapter would end with Gohan Beast debut.

Thing is though... Moro started in the middle of a chapter. Granolah also started in the middle of a chapter. The fight can conclude next month, then the aftermath and resolution is in chapter 100 which also kickstarts the following arc, whatever that may be. It's not out of the realm of possibility, I mean, it's literally happened before.

[Super Saiyan Swagger]

Next chapter’s gotta be the last one and chapter 100 will hopefully be a new arc. I’ve noticed that if an arc isn’t spanning into another year, then December chapters are usually the first chapter of a new arc.

[Magnificent Ponta]

Cute redraw of the Toriyama Cell Max promo illustration for the Chapter.

An interesting decision to have Pan fly now for the Senzu Bean - I guess they wanted her to have a slightly bigger role there by having her contributing materially to the heroic effort as a result? It's a nice link back to her chasing and diving for the frog back in #90, joining up an early character moment ("You're pretty fearless, Pan") with a plot moment. Not a bad call.

[FortuneSSJ]

Thing is though... Moro started in the middle of a chapter. Granolah also started in the middle of a chapter. The fight can conclude next month, then the aftermath and resolution is in chapter 100 which also kickstarts the following arc, whatever that may be. It's not out of the realm of possibility, I mean, it's literally happened before.

That's the only way yeah, because next chapter won't conclude everything.

[BWri]

One thing stood out to me. I always thought Cell Max was more mechanical than Cell, #17, and #18. I could've sworn he had electrical wiring running through his arm. Maybe I'm misremembering that. Whatever the case, this time Cell Max appears to be a mostly biological creation judging from the blood, flesh, and bone on display after Gamma 2's final attack.

[Cipher]

I'm kinda sick of this storyline by now. Cell Max, Orange Piccolo, the Gammas... a year and a half dealing with this in every shape and form, I just want this to end, I'm having Granola arc flashbacks. I'm like Granola shouting that he needs this to end for good.
I doubt Piccolo will take a beating for an entire chapter so Beast Gohan can be the cliffhanger... but who knows? that whole Pan flying thing ended up taking even more space, just because...

This retelling arc will end up being a few chapters short of the Zamasu arc. But hey, at least we'll be able read the entire story. The one that Toriyama and Toei don't seem to give two fucks about.

The same length as the Future Trunks arc if it wraps up at 100—13 each. (14–26; 88–100.)

I like the Pan flying change. It has earlier setup with her cliff-diving/frog-catching with Piccolo, and here she actively contributes to Gohan’s victory instead of just getting her flight as an aside. I think it’s kind of wholly an improvement on the film in that regard. A good choice.

Piccolo forgetting his gigantification technique doesn’t square with the manga and probably should have gotten a dialogue change. A little strange seeing Toyotaro make considered changes in some spots and autopilot others. Oh well.

One thing stood out to me. I always thought Cell Max was more mechanical than Cell, #17, and #18. I could've sworn he had electrical wiring running through his arm. Maybe I'm misremembering that. Whatever the case, this time Cell Max appears to be a mostly biological creation judging from the blood, flesh, and bone on display after Gamma 2's final attack.

His damage in the movie shows bone and sinew—not wiring.